Mothering and researching: the constitution of a mother-researcher in a research trajectory

Abstract

This paper aims to narrate the trajectory of a mother/researcher throughout the process of conducting doctoral research, experienced concurrently with the motherhood of an infant. As a methodological strategy, it draws on recollection through images and records of the child’s expressions and utterances since infancy, composing a sensitive and reflective narrative path. The analyses are developed around the experience of constituting an (im)possible motherhood, tensioned by the demands and challenges of scientific practice. The writing is organized into subdivisions that chronologically follow this intense process of becoming, woven within a complex web of relationships that articulate mothering and researching. In each section, the specificities of this trajectory are detailed, from the development of the research proposal to the submission of the final thesis to the examination committee. The analyses highlight not only the numerous challenges involved in articulating motherhood and research, but also the potentialities that emerge from this experience, configuring a narrative in which life and research are intertwined in the constitution of a mother/researcher.